Union agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister Radha Mohan Singh said the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM), 2016, will prove to be a milestone in connecting farmers with technology.

Farmers visit an exhibition at GRAM in Jaipur.(Prabhakar Sharma/HT Photo)

Union agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Friday that the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM), 2016, will prove to be a milestone in connecting farmers with technology.

Addressing the valedictory session of the meet, Singh said while other states were organizing investors’ meets, Rajasthan has taken the unique to organise the first of its kind initiative at an international level.

The Centre is committed for the welfare of farmers and was doing its utmost to double their income in view of the Prime Minister’s mission, and connecting farmers with global technology, he said.

Talking on the Centre’s initiative on soil health management, he said more than 23 lakh soil health cards have been issued in the past two years.

The three-day meet ended on Friday with farmers, academicians, researchers, policy makers and industry stakeholders lauding the event for having achieved its prime objective of sharing knowledge with farmers.

Praising the state government’s initiatives for innovative farming as well as water conservation, Singh said whether it was in the arena of olives, date palm, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries, the state has become a model for others to emulate.

He further said that the manner in which the state was progressing in agriculture and allied sectors, very soon it will be comparable to Israel.

Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Vasundhara Raje said GRAM was a historic festival and has in it the origins of an ‘agriculture revolution’.

“The meet was a success with participation of agri-scientists, specialists, entrepreneurs and ambassadors of different countries,” she said.

She said she was happy to see participants from Israel, Iran, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Japan, Nigeria, Serbia and the World Bank.

“Similar agri-tech meets will be organised at the divisional level in the state,” she said.